


Dreamland

by XenaGrace



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Angst, Dreams, Frerard, Ghost Frank Iero, Hallucinations, Hauntings, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-22
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 01:20:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25436047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XenaGrace/pseuds/XenaGrace
Summary: Based off the song Dreamland by Glass AnimalsIn the real world, Gerard was asleep in his bed.In the real world, Frank was dead.
Relationships: Frank Iero/Gerard Way
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	1. The Dark Red Room

**Author's Note:**

> Please listen to Dreamland by Glass Animals before reading!! It's heavily based off this song 
> 
> Also please let me know if you'd be interested in a chapter two!

“Hey Frankie.”

“Hey Gee. How was your day?”

The two teenagers were sitting across from each other on the floor in a dark red room. 

“It was okay, I guess. The usual.”

This room wasn’t real and this wasn’t real, of course. This was all in Gerard’s head, in his dreams. In the real world, Gerard was fast asleep in his bed. 

“Matt and his goons bother you today?”

In the real world, Frank was dead. 

“Yeah, but it wasn’t too bad this time. Bob saw and stepped in and scared them off and they didn’t bug me the rest of the day.”

“That’s awesome. Bob’s fucking awesome.”

“Yeah.”

Gerard had first met Frank in the first grade on the playground during recess. Frank was a loud, energetic kid, while Gerard was quieter and a bit more reserved. Gerard had been brooding on the swing set when Frank had come over and invited himself to sit on the swing next to him. Frank had challenged Gerard to a contest to see who could swing the highest, and Gerard couldn’t say no when he knew he could beat this short kid’s ass. They had been the best of friends ever since, holding hands in the classroom and wherever else they went. 

Their friendship had become even closer in the middle school, when their hand-holding had taken on more meaning than just friendship. This was a relationship they kept as their own little secret, just the two of them so no one could bully them more than they already did. 

But the first day of high school changed everything. The two were in separate classes that morning when the gunshots started to ring through the hallways, the sound of screaming kids following suit. Gerard had been in one of the hallways at his locker when it all went down and found all the nearby doors to be locked already, leaving him vulnerable to the shooter. He was scared for his life, and scared for his boyfriend, not knowing if he was safe or already dead. 

Gerard had just run, with nowhere specific in his mind. While he ran through the hallways, he heard more shots, more screams, and saw the blood and bodies littering the hallways of the high school. But he stopped dead in his tracks when he ran straight into the shooter.

There stood in front of him was his boyfriend, Frank, covered in blood with a gun in his right hand. 

“Frank?” He had said, weakly. He didn’t know if his boyfriend was going to shoot him or let him go. He didn’t know what had gotten into him, and he was terrified of Frank right now. 

All Frank said was, “I love you so much, Gee, don’t you ever forget that” before he put the gun under his own neck and pulled the trigger. 

Gerard had had to go into an inpatient program at the nearby behavioral center for weeks afterwards because he was so traumatized from that day. The first night he was finally able to fall asleep was when he found Frank in his dreamland, waiting for him in the dark red room. Since then, Gerard had never had trouble sleeping again.

It had been three years since Frank had died, and Gerard had still never asked him why he had done it. 

“Hey Frankie?” Gerard asked, figuring three years was long enough.

“What’s up?”

“Can I ask why? Why did that uh…that day… why?”

Frank simply sighed, looking down at the ground. “My family was involved in a lot of shit you didn’t know about. The school thing was something I had to do to be um… initiated… into something. I didn’t have a choice.”

“But how can you get initiated into something if you’re dead?”

Frank laughed at this, “Gee, that wasn’t part of it. That was all me. I just… I saw you and your face, and I couldn’t live with the guilt. So, I took the easy way out. I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. I just wish I could hold you again.”

“Me too Gee. Me too.”

The two sat in comfortable silence for a minute until Gerard said, “Hey, wanna know something weird?”

“Go for it.”

“So,” Gerard said, “Ever since then, I’ve always felt this presence watching me in my sleep. Like, I’m soo dead asleep right now, but it still feels like I can feel another physical presence in the room with me, just watching me. And I try to wake up, but I feel like it’s keeping me asleep. It’s weird as fuck”  
“Hmm. Weird as fuck.” Frank smiled.


	2. Dull Hazel Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this isn't getting many hits or kudos but fuck it I'm gonna keep going and maybe this will pick up somehow. I have hope!

“Does Mikey know? About this room and me?” Frank asked. Gerard shook his head no, and Frank sighed. “How come? I thought you told each other everything.”

“I don’t want him thinking I’m crazier than he already thinks I am,” Gerard said, sadly. 

“He doesn’t think you’re crazy, Gee.”

“Yes, he does! He watched me get sent to a fucking psych ward for weeks, Frank, that’s where crazy people go. I want him to think I’m… normal. He doesn’t need to know I see you in my dreams every night like you’re real.”

Frank shrunk back at this. Gerard instinctively moved closer to him, touching his arm. It felt cold to the touch. Makes sense, he’s fucking dead Gerard thought to himself. 

“Frankie, I didn’t mean it like that. You know I can’t wait to go to sleep every night because I get to see you and touch you and just be with you again. If I could go into a coma to just stay here with you forever, I would in a heartbeat. I just… I don’t want Mikey to look at me differently, you know?”

Frank pulled his knees up to his face, setting his face on top of his arms and huffing, “He wouldn’t, you know. He wouldn’t see you any differently.” 

Gerard gave him a look. “How would you know?”

“I just do, okay?”

They sat in silence, facing one another for a few minutes. Frank kept his eyes to the floor while Gerard had his on Frank, just taking in his features. He missed how alive Frank used to look. His skin was pale now, his eyes a dull hazel color, his tattoos faded. Gerard ran his fingers across Frank’s neck tattoos, Frank moving his neck upwards so Gerard could get a better look. It always amazed Gerard that Frank’s parents had let him get fully covered in tattoos at their age. 

But then again, Gerard had only met his parents a few times, mainly Frank’s father. Growing up, they mostly played at Gerard’s house, Frank’s excuse always being that his dad had meetings at the house all day and they couldn’t disturb him. He had formally met his father maybe once or twice, and he was intimidating, to say the least. He always wore a suit and smoked a cigar, he remembered, and he had a thick Italian accent. He also remembered Frank complaining that he could rarely practice guitar because of his father and his meetings with men just as scary looking as his father. Gerard wondered if his father’s job had anything to do with this “initiation” he mentioned the other night. 

Suddenly, Gerard felt that presence again. He tapped into his physical body and felt someone else in his room, watching him sleep. He drew back suddenly, making Frank look up at him. 

“You ok, Gee?”

Gerard suddenly felt uncomfortable in his dreamland, “I feel it again. That presence watching me sleep. It’s freaking me out. I need to wake up and make sure-“

“Please don’t go,” Frank grabbed his arm, his cold fingers grasping Gerard’s forearm tightly. Gerard looked at him, suspiciously. 

“I just need to make sure no one’s there, Frankie, I’ll be right back. I promise.”

“Gee, please just give me a minute-“

It was too late. Gerard had woken up suddenly back in his bed in his room, the window on the right side of the wall letting in the moonlight. Gerard looked around for someone, and his eyes eventually fell on the short dark figure in the chair across the room that disappeared almost on cue. 

Gerard rubbed his eyes once the figure vanished. Once the figure was confirmed out of his room, he settled back down into the bed, before sitting back up as his door opened to Mikey standing in the doorway with a pillow and a blanket. 

“I can’t sleep. Nightmares.” Mikey stated. 

“You can sleep in my bed with me if you want,” Gerard said. 

“The floor’s fine.” Mikey made his way to lay down on the floor next to Gerard’s bed. Gerard looked down at Mikey as he made his little makeshift bed. He suddenly felt the urge to tell Mikey everything, maybe he would understand. 

“Hey Mikes,” he started, “do you ever um… do you ever get this feeling like someone’s watching over you while you sleep? Like every night?”

Mikey rolled over to face his brother looking down at him, “Um, maybe every once in a while but not every night. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, yeah, I just… thought I saw someone in that chair over there.” 

“It’s just your imagination, Gee. Get some sleep, ok?” Mikey said, rolling over to face the wall. 

“Yeah. Night, Mikey.” Gerard said, laying back down. 

He stared at the ceiling instead of falling asleep, picturing the figure in the chair. Right before it disappeared, he could’ve sworn he saw dull hazel eyes looking right at him.


	3. Mikey

The next night, Gerard tossed and turned for hours. Every time he fell asleep, he’d find himself in an actual dream instead of the dark red room. And he was alone.

This has never happened before he thought to himself while calling out Frank’s name repeatedly to no avail. Frank was always there, waiting for him when he fell asleep. He also realized this was the first night he didn’t feel the presence watching over him. 

The presence that had strikingly similar eyes to Frank. 

Gerard woke back up and stared at the ceiling, putting a hand to his forehead. The figure definitely had to be his overactive imagination, there was no way it could be what he was actually thinking. 

Ghosts weren’t real. Right? 

\---------

“How the fuck did you get in my dreams? You can do that?” Mikey awed at his dream surroundings- they were in a dark red room, him and Frank. 

“Yeah I’ve been visiting Gerard every night practically since it happened- he hasn’t told you?”

“Nope, probably thought I’d think he’s crazy or something.”

“That’s exactly what he thought,” Frank laughed, before turning more serious, “That’s beside the point though. Mikey, I’m pretty sure he saw me.”

Mikey looked at him, “What?! Frankie you gotta be more careful than that. I know he felt you in the room, he told me that much, but Frank we agreed-“

“I know I know, we agreed he wasn’t ready yet, but he woke up too fast and I didn’t have time to disappear right away. It takes a lot of energy to be in someone’s dreams while also being in the real world you know.”

“So then just do one or the other? You don’t need to be in his room,” Mikey suggested, “I think it creeps him out anyways.” 

“I know but I can’t,” Frank huffed, plopping himself down on the ground, “I’ve been watching over him since before I even learned how to appear in his dreams. It’s just normal at this point and, I don’t know, comforting, I guess. Maybe it wouldn’t be that bad, you know… maybe he wouldn’t freak out if we told him.”

Mikey sighed, sitting across from his ghost friend. Frank had first appeared to Mikey one of the first nights Gerard came back home from the behavioral center. He had snuck into Gerard’s room to make sure he was sleeping okay, and Frank had been so surprised to see Mikey he forgot the fact that he was a ghost. Mikey almost let out a scream, gasping loudly instead. Gerard had woken up immediately, Frank having disappeared mere seconds before. 

“What’s wrong, Mikey?” Gerard had asked. 

Mikey had to collect himself so as not to let his big brother see him scared. He reassured Gerard that everything was fine and to just go back to bed. Apparently, Gerard stayed awake, because Mikey had found a lifelike-looking Frank waiting for him back in his room, causing him to actually panic. It had taken everything in Frank to calm then ten-year-old down. Over the course of the next three years, Frank would hang out in Mikey’s room with him during the day when possible and stayed in Gerard’s room at night. Frank had told Mikey everything that Gerard didn’t yet know. 

He wondered how he’d feel when he found out. 

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea, Frank. You thought I freaked out? Just wait ‘til Gerard finds out his dead lover is actually a ghost who shot up a school to be initiated by his father into the fucking mafia. I’m sure he’ll take it pretty well.” 

Frank clawed at his eyes frustrated. He knew Mikey was right, Gerard would probably have a heart attack once he found out the truth. 

“Plus,” Mikey chimed back in, “We’d have to tell him our plan. That would go over even worse.” 

“Fuck, you’re right.” Frank sighed, defeated. He just hated keeping secrets from Gerard. 

Gerard. He was probably freaking out that Frank wasn’t in his dreamland right now. 

“Shit Mikey I gotta go,” Frank said, standing back up, “He’s probably freaking out because this is the first time I haven’t been there. We’ll talk more after school, yeah?”

\----------

To say Gerard was relieved to see himself back in the dark red room with Frank was a bit of an understatement. He immediately ran over to embrace him in a too-tight hug, practically crushing the cold boy in his arms. 

“You weren’t here, where were you?” Gerard asked. 

“I don’t know Gee, ask yourself. I’m just a figure of your imagination, right?” Frank chuckled. 

“Yeah,” Gerard said, uneasily. He thought back to seeing the dull hazel eyes in his room, the same dull hazel eyes staring back at him expectedly. 

“Right, Frankie.”


End file.
